Surrounded by the Sierra Curral, which serves as a natural and historical reference frame, was designed and built to be the political and administrative capital of the state mining under the influence of the ideas of positivism, when the strong appeal of the Republican ideology in the country The city is a mixture of tradition and modernity and there is the beauty of its architectural sets and a rich artistic and cultural production.

According to estimates for 2007, its population is 2,412,937 inhabitants and the sixth most populous city in the country. Belo Horizonte has already been indicated by the Population Crisis Committee, the UN, as the city with better quality of life in Latin America and the 45th among the 100 best cities in the world

The city has the fourth largest GDP among Brazilian municipalities representing 1.38% of total wealth produced in the country. [11] A highlight of the city's development in recent times is the ranking of the magazine América Economía, which appears as Belo Horizonte one of the 10 best cities for doing business in Latin America in 2009, second in Brazil and ahead of cities like Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Curitiba.

The Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, formed by 34 municipalities, has an estimated population of 5,397,438 inhabitants, being the third largest agglomeration Brazilian, Latin America and the seventh of 62 largest in the world.

Belo Horizonte is one of 12 Brazilian cities to host the games of the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014.

Region of contact between different geological series of proterozoico, composed of crystalline rocks, which gives the territory different landscapes. Is in large geological unit known as the São Francisco craton, on the extensive crustal core of the center-east of Brazil, at the end of the stable tectonic paleoproterozoico and bordering areas that suffered in neoproterozoico regeneration.

Curral view of the mountains within the Park Mangabeira.Predominam of the rocks arqueanas members of Belo Horizonte and complex sequences of supracrustais period paleoproterozoico. The area of Belo Horizonte Complex includes the geomorphological unit called Depression of Belo Horizonte, which represents about 70% of the capital of mining area and has its greatest expression in the northern pipeline from Ribeirão Arruda. The field of sequences metassedimentares has its area of occurrence of the southern pipeline Ribeirão Arruda, constituting about 30% of the area of Belo Horizonte. The characteristics of this area are the hilly topography and lithological diversity that is the maximum expression in Sierra Currall, the southern boundary of the municipality.

Comprises a succession of layers of rocks of varied composition, represented by Itabirito, dolomite, quartzite, and schist filitos different, the general direction of northwest-southeast and dip to the southeast.

The hills of Belo Horizonte are ramifications of the Cordillera Espinhaço and belong to the group of the Sierra Itacolomi. Around the city are the mountains of Jatobá, José Vieira, Mutuca, Taquaril and Currall. The culmination of the municipality is in the Sierra Curral, reaching 1538 meters.